Award-winning brewer Bill Eye has left Prost Brewing

Bill Eye, an award-winning brewer who became a part owner at Prost Brewing when it opened in the spring of 2012, has resigned as brewmaster. Eye specialized in brewing German-style lagers and gained attention at Dry Dock Brewing when the Aurora company won a series of Great American Beer Festival medals in 2009, 2010 and 2011.

He left Dry Dock in late 2011 to follow his dream of owning a German-style brewery. " This is what I have wanted to do for ten years," he said then.

Eye didn't want to comment Monday on his reasons for leaving Prost, or on what he plans to do next, confirming only that he had left the brewery. Part of the reason he said he didn't want to comment is because he is still a part owner.

Fellow Prost brewer Ashleigh Carter, who Eye trained and recruited from Dry Dock, also confirmed that she is no longer employed at the brewery, but says it wasn't her choice.

When Prost opened, its goal was to brew and sell only German-style beers, including pilsners, hefeweizens and dunkels - an unusual strategy for a craft brewer at a time when the industry is experiencing a Renaissance based on big, bold or unusual beers.

Eye has five business partners at Prost -- including Brauns on Blake owner Troy Johnston.